Moses B. Matalon

Moses B. Matalon

Moses began his career when he opened a small foundry and machine shop on Luke Lane after the end of the Second World War. Later, with the family’s entrance into the mass housing market, he invested time in WIHCON and went about making modifications to the prefab construction system that was employed in the building of Mona Heights. He was credited with being one of the creators of a proprietary prefabricated building system that was adapted to countries with large pools of unskilled labour. He was visionary in finding solutions to the housing and construction industry. He conceptualised the reclamation of land in the foreshore area of Kingston and the dredging of the harbour to allow for large vessels to access the deep-water port facilities for both Newport East and West. While the dredging project at Newport was underway Moses envisioned the creation of a causeway link to the Portmore area to open up the vast lands there for housing. Moses’s special talents were in planning and development. He had a clear vision of how everything should be laid out. He also headed the Urban Development Corporation which under his stewardship led the redevelopment of downtown Kingston and Ocho Rios among other national developments.